The above animated GIF comes from 2009’s World’s Greatest Dad, which is awesome and available to watch anytime via Amazon Prime (Get Started with your free 30-day trial here) And because I feel like an absolute monster for all the plugs, I wanted to make the GIF available without the Laser Time logo should anybody want it for any reason. Thought it pretty accurately expressed how many of us are feeling.

I do want to thank Mikel for being the one who broke the news for me, I had gotten home from work, mildy concussed from smacking my head at work, messed up from pain killers and allergy meds and seeing his tweet about Robin Williams made me think, yup I am hallucinating crazy shit and took a 3 hour nap. When I woke up… the news was still true 🙁 nuts…

Did Bobcat kill Robin Williams? No doubt in my mind that Robin learned about choking yourself with a belt from making worlds greatest dad. That being said its still a great movie and a shame no one saw it at its release. “I wish he were a zombie, I like zombies.”

Haven’t listened yet, but really glad you guys did this. It cannot be overstated how big a loss the world has suffered here. One thing I’ll say is if anyone wants to hear probably one of the only longform and personal interviews that Williams has done, Marc Maron just put up his WTF interview with him again. It’s sad to hear him talk about certain things but you really get to go inside his brain a little bit.

Thank you for this episode Chris, listening to all those clips was both fun, heartwaring, and a little sad, but in a good way. It reminds us of what we just lost, but it’s also a great time to rediscover a lot of William’s past work.

Thanks to this podcast, I’ve decided to check out Aladdin and Hook again, as well as to discover “Good Morning Vietnam” and “World’s Greatest Dad”.

Also, awesome on Diana for being upfront about her experience and views on suicide, that was heavy, but also brave and I really applaud her for it, and also for her stance on the subject.

Robin Williams’s character in A Wish for Wings That Work does exist in the comic strip — well, it exists in ONE Outland Sunday strip, anyway. I did a quick search for it to see if I could find it, and it’s actually detailed here: http://www.platypuscomix.net/hollywood/misfit27.html

Sorry, not really much about Robin Williams in this comment. I just really like Bloom County 🙁

when I think of Robin I think of a guy cracking an infectious nervous smile, in an attempt to mask some kind of sadness or insecurity. that was his secret weapon in his dramatic roles. you always felt for the guy.

then I watch his manic side, and you any help but love the guy in a completely different way. what an incredible performer. I also wish he found his Wes Anderson. there was so much untapped potential left in him.

“Sometimes suicide is the answer” is a really irresponsible thing to say, regardless of your reasoning, when a significant portion of your listeners are likely to be moody young people, many of whom have expressed depression in comments etc. Especially when so many look up to you from having listened to these podcasts for so long.

Yeah, fine. Feel free to ignore anything I said during that portion of the show. Hum a tune until you hear Diana come in, because in all sincerity, I only want you to take away what she says on the matter. I regret saying what I said at the time I said it, for real.

But in fairness to me, nowhere did I apply what I said to “moody young people.” Hell, even Laser Time can help moody young people! That was specifically toward people who want to be free of the burden of constant pain and indignity. Now, if anybody needs me, I’ll be off to visit my grandparents who haven’t been able to care for themselves for five years, expressed a lack of will to live (the one with the ability to express anything), and will likely live another decade until they’re broke and become a burden on their family or the state. God forbid they die and I get sad!

I don’t disagree with your basic point, but I know that at the height of my depression, all I woulda taken from that would be “guy I like on podcast says suicide is okay”.

I totally agree that your work has almost certainly helped people through some dark times though, so good work on that front. Hell, most of the rest of this podcast was even therapeutic to me, to an extent!

I think you guys are actually talking about two different things here: suicide and euthanasia. I’m actually for euthanasia if you’re terminal and have zero quality to your life – we’re talking constant pain, can’t move, can’t do anything. That kind of misery. See spoiledtaco’s note below. (Thanks for that, spoiledtaco.)

Being really fucking depressed is a different ballgame. You feel like you’re in constant pain and can’t do anything and in misery, but that’s the depression demon in your head talking, not reality. That’s why when you get to the bottom of the pit, you need to get help – because you can’t tell the difference anymore.

And if help doesn’t help, then you need to find something else. For me, it was spite. Just pure fucking spite. I kept living to spite the bullies and the shitty teachers and the stupid assholes on TV and everybody, because me dying wouldn’t hurt them, it’d only hurt people who weren’t bastards to me. And because I knew once I was 18, I could do whatever the fuck I wanted. If I wanted to live in a shack in the middle of nowhere with no running water to avoid humanity, I could, and they could suck it.

I went with San Francisco instead of a Unabomber shack because I’d miss having a VCR and I suck a chopping firewood.

Had to stop the episode about 8 minutes in. This has hit me quite hard. I’m no Robin Williams super fan, like most people to enjoy comedy I certainly appreciated his work, and his death was shocking. However its me hard because several years ago my father was diagnosed with dementia and parkinson’s, he is only 52. I watched the depression engulf him, and about 18 months ago he tried to end his life. I freaked, I’m not ready to lose my dad. My mother and I had him committed in a psychiatric ward for 2 months. 3 months ago he lost the ability to walk. He has a difficult time speaking. He’s lost good chunks of his memory. These were all things that he knew were coming, and that he didn’t want to live through. And through my selfishness of not wanting to lose my dad, I made him stick around and suffer through it. So yes, Chris is right, sometimes suicide is probably the answer. I just wish I had been tough enough to let my dad make his own decision.

As someone who in all honestly doesn’t have a lot of love for Robin Williams, this episode did manage to make me tear up a little. Your passion for this man has been made very apparent after all the coverage. I can certainly appreciate all the great things he has done as an entertainer. No one has his almost manic style. He wasn’t a major star to me, but I can understand why everyone else has been so broken up. RIP

I just watched one hour photo, williams is really creepy in it.
Also agent coulsons in it.
I still love Jumanji, Flubber, Aladdin, Aladdin 3, williams was in my childhood.
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Any who I just wanted to say to you chris that i dont think williams is overrated but that I thought you were overrating him, saying things like hollywood didnt cater to his talents and writes for larry the cable guy(hes not even relevant anymore either is he?) mediocre hollywood writes for sitcom level actors I believe. I think williams for the most part of his career did what he wanted, had choice of roles and peaked but yes couldve done more.
(Wouldve been a great riddler maybe, if he didnt act outrageous as carrey and instead with smugness.)
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And while its not a well constructed film, I love this clip and its why Im surprised by williams choice to end his life as hes the one who made me believe you shouldnt.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzO-kzwvyDE

A few nights ago, my girlfriend and I watched “The Birdcage” (she had never seen it before), to celebrate Williams’ work and because it’s one of the funniest damn movies I’ve ever seen. During the scene where everyone is putting on their dour, grey suits to get ready for the dinner party, Robin looks in the mirror and says, “Dear God, I look like my grandfather. He dressed like this in every picture. He killed himself when he was 30”. I almost had to turn it off. We’d been laughing our asses off for the entire movie, and that line was like an ice pick in my heart. This episode was a great tribute to the life and work of a great comedian and a great man. Well done, Chris. Well done.

Thanks for recording this episode, really helped looking back on such a great man with Chris, Mikel, and Diana. Speaking of which, Diana, I’m glad you got past those hard times in your youth. I can’t imagine living in a world where TalkSeder never existed. As well, thank you for the few words of advice for anyone going through the same.

I’m in the same boat as you all – I feel the last few years in Robin’s career was very ehh. But, that doesn’t change his influence on animation, comedy, or how he was just an incredibly nice, hardworking guy.